Time’s Stengel to Bill Clinton: Why aren’t you a Tea Party hero?

posted at 7:04 pm on November 11, 2011 by Tina Korbe

A logical question, right? After all, Bill Clinton presided over a balanced budget and cut the rate of the growth of government. (Note: Cutting the rate of growth is still not shrinking the government.)

Clinton was more than willing to roll with the question, that’s for sure, responding with this:

“I thought I should have been their favorite politician.” …

“I think because I didn’t do it according to the ideology,” he added. “I raised taxes and cut spending. I did it with a mix of policies that also left us money to invest in our future and in our quality of life. I think that’s really important. There are some things that the government has to do because the private sector does not have the capacity to advance the public interest in that way.”

Yes, that’s it. Tea Partiers have failed to give Clinton his due because he took a — cue one of Obama’s favorite phrases — balanced approach.

Or, could it be that Clinton’s fiscal responsibility was forced upon him by, say, a Republican Congress? That’s the position taken by … Wolf Blitzer.

“What he didn’t say to you is that at the time, when he balanced the budget and saw surpluses, he did it in part because of enormous pressure he was under from the Republican majority in Congress,” Blitzer noted on Thursday’s The Situation Room. Stengel did acknowledge that fact.

Good to see Mr. Blitzer setting the record straight.

Incidentally, this also serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of Congress. If the GOP is ultimately saddled with a RINO nominee, but wins the White House — and conservatives take back the Senate and retain the House — important reforms, from Obamacare repeal to regulatory rollback, will still be signed into law. Similarly, if Obama is reelected, but conservatives win Congress, he’ll be unable to inflict much damage. The presidential election might be the most exciting to follow — and presidents might ultimately bear blame and receive credit for whatever happens during their administrations — but the machinations of Congress often matter most.

Blowback

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I think Bill Clinton is a smart enough politician not to create a populist back lash. Would Bill Clinton have made a point of triangulating and courting the TEA party in the first place? If history is any judge, he probably would have figured out a way to co opt the anger directed toward George W Bush, because of TARP, he wouldn’t fuel that same anger, and point the back lash toward himself.

Thanks, Tina – I’ve been saying that to people too. Getting control of the House and Senate may be more important than regaining the Presidency, although having a Republican President probably means GOP-passed bills won’t face a veto.
Speaking of which, a Colorado judge yesterday ruled in favor of a Democrat redistricting plan, which in effect takes away GOP votes from Mike Coffman (R- Dist. 6) and replaces them with Dem votes. Some of what had been district 6 now moves to heavily R district 4. Sounds like a gain for Democrats in Colorado, thanks to a judge.

Thus, taking the White House Obama Campaign Headquarters is vital if we expect to make sure conservative legislation is not tossed aside by a wise Latina woman or one wearing comfortable shoes and a bunch of uberliberal “justices.”

Fairly certain we can grow our seats in the House and if not retake the Senate at least bring it to a 50-50 fairly easily.

Incidentally, this also serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of Congress. If the GOP is ultimately saddled with a RINO nominee, but wins the White House — and conservatives take back the Senate and retain the House — important reforms, from Obamacare repeal to regulatory rollback, will still be signed into law. Similarly, if Obama is reelected, but conservatives win Congress, he’ll be unable to inflict much damage. The presidential election might be the most exciting to follow — and presidents might ultimately bear blame and receive credit for whatever happens during their administrations — but the machinations of Congress often matter most.

We really need to pay a lot more attention to Congress. Ironically, after all the must and fuss earlier this year, Sarah Palin may make her biggest contribution by helping promote conservative Congresspeople.

If we don’t have a more conservative Congress, it won’t do us much good to capture the White House. Especially if we wind up with a RINO.

The Republicans saved Clinton’s presidency by stopping the worst of his policy efforts. (I will never forgive Trent Lott for preventing his conviction in the Senate) The budget was “balanced” using the same type of accounting tricks that brought down Enron and WorldCom.

We’re out here Big Dawg. Since the media stereotyped the TP as all neocons they exclude we recovering Democrats from the coverage. We have been here from the beginning

The fellow exiles I come across are what wouldve been termed Reagan Democrats in the 80s.

We LOVED the prosperity across all income groups under the Big Dawg. the Democraticization of the equity markets. The opening of free trade (Romney is right re China BTW)

We’re here Big Dawg, we’re voting GOP now. The DLC disbanded and Clinton Dems have gone TP tring to restrain the Donna Brazille ‘egghead, AA, neoprogressive, youth’coalition which brought us HippieBoomerWannaRelivethe60sPolslikePelosi writing all the bills for the empty suit the TBTF put in to stop Hillary from letting their axxex go bankrupt.

The morons have been going short US, lone Emerging Markets for years not believing that the 60% of US Population that is Middle Class and makes up 70% of GDP with consumer spending is STILL the engine that drives the entire global economy.

Apparently their ingenius master plan to sell products manufactured in emerging markets at slave labor wages to the ‘booming’ middle class in those emerging markets was a dud. Gee whodathunk? Frakkin idiots.

The US middle class needs to get their balance sheets back together. Big Dawg gave us a level playing field and a fair shot and cvut spending and balanced the budget and didnt let us get neck deep in wars that require a decade of occupation at high force counts. We loved it.

We are here Bill. We’re just hibernating through the Obamapocalypse and voting GOP and going to TP events to try and stop the disaster of debt visited in just 10 years.

People who say they will never vote for Romney will have their pride to keep them warm when Obama cuts our heat off in the Winter if he gets back in.

Similarly, if Obama is reelected, but conservatives win Congress, he’ll be unable to inflict much damage.

No, Obama would completely corrupt the courts for an entire generation because the Republicans in the Senate will let his appointees be confirmed. Obama’s judges would doom America; it would simply take a little longer.

Similarly, if Obama is reelected, but conservatives win Congress, he’ll be unable to inflict much damage.

Obama just had the best week ever – both of his main competitors (Cain and Perry) are about to fail, if they have not already yet. Perry looked like a pathetic buffoon with his oops comment..

If conservatives are so depressed that they do not even vote in the primaries, Romney will win easily. Gingrich had a good week but he is not going to be the nominee.

So conservatives are left with Mitt Romney in the general election… if they were horrified at voting for McCain in 2008 they are left with Romney now.. and we are wondering “if Obama is re-elected”.

Unless there is a miracle, Obama will win pretty handily. Just like McCain added Palin to the ticket hoping that it would be a game changer, Romney will have to do some thing very similar… and just like last time, it most likely wont work.

Obama has no chance against any candidate. The list of scandals will grow exponentially in the months ahead. Just today we learn of a $433 MM no-bid contract going to a big Obama donor for a questionable need. Whoever the GOP nominates will win the election, short of a world ending event.

Obama just had the best week ever – both of his main competitors (Cain and Perry) are about to fail, if they have not already yet. Perry looked like a pathetic buffoon with his oops comment..

If conservatives are so depressed that they do not even vote in the primaries, Romney will win easily. Gingrich had a good week but he is not going to be the nominee.

Why exactly are Cain, someone who can’t say anything besides 9-9-9 and can’t explain what insurance premium support, a key feature of the conservative House’s Medicare plan, and Perry, who’s shown an inability to explain conservative policies in general, the main competition for Obama?

You realize that the guy who was Speaker of the House in the congress Blitzer is talking about it Gingrich, right?

We need someone who can explain conservatism, not just be conservative. The best of them didn’t run, Christie, Ryan, Rubio, etc. (And before you say it, Cain would have a similar record of those guys if he actually had won an election before.) Conservatism is not some simple intellectual movement the way liberalism is ith its emotionalism and government solutions for everything. We need someone who can explain it and why we believe in it.